WASILLA — During their first six games of the season against the Kenai River Brown Bears, the Alaska Avalanche skated to a 5-1-0 mark while averaging nearly five goals per game.
If the Avs had an Achilles’ heel during that stretch, it was their play on the penalty kill. In those six games, Kenai had scored 10 times — nearly half of its goals — while skating with the advantage.
On Friday, Kenai was a mere 1-for-10 with the man advantage, but the Brown Bears made their lone power-play tally count. Kenai forward Ryan Lemke scored on the power play with less than three minutes left in regulation to give the Bears a 5-4 win over the Avalanche at the Curtis C. Menard ll Memorial Ice Arena in Wasilla.
“You couldn’t get anything better than that,” Kenai head coach Brent Agrusa said after his Brown Bears handed the Avs their third loss of the season. “Tic-tac-toe, you get the goal.”
Just five seconds after Alaska defenseman Jason Cohen was whistled with a borderline cross checking penalty across the boards, Lemke snuck the puck past Alaska netminder Austin Maginnis to post the go-ahead score.
Lemke’s score came almost immediately following the face-off, thanks to quick passes by Chris Annuziato and Edvin Berg.
“The guy won the face-off clean.” Alaska head coach Dave Boitz said. “I was telling the guys all night they were getting killed on face-offs.”
Kenai’s power-play goal killed what looked like another third-period comeback for the Avs.
Blueliners Beau Braun and Logan Maly each found the back of the net early in the third period to erase Alaska’s two-goal deficit and tie the game at 4-4.
“Blowing those third-period leads in three of the last four games, it was good to bounce back and get a win tonight,” Agrusa said.
Of Alaska’s last four against its neighbor to the south, the Avs’ 9-3 win on Nov. 1 was the only time in which the Avalanche did not need a late third-period rally to post a win.
On Oct. 31, Alaska scored four times in the third en route to a 7-4 win. In Alaska’s last home series against Kenai — Oct. 17 and 18 — the Avs scored five third-period goals in a pair of come-from-behind wins.
With the Avs trailing 4-2 late in the third period Friday, Braun used the back of the blade of his stick to knock a shot past Kenai goalie Jimmy Hamby just 2:17 into the period to cut Kenai’s lead to one.
Midway through the frame, defenseman Logan Maly flipped a wrist shot in from the point that found the net.
But even though the Avs managed to put 40 shots on the Kenai goal, Alaska failed to post the go-ahead score before Lemke crushed the Avalanche with the devastating power-play tally.
“We squandered way too many opportunities,” Boitz said.
It also didn’t help that Alaska lost two of its top veterans for the game after an altercation near the Kenai net with more than eight minutes left in the third.
Braun tangled with Kenai River forward Nick Simson and both were handed four-minute double minors. Braun was also tagged with a 10-minute misconduct. Alaska forward Tyler Currier, the team’s top returning scorer from the 2007-08 season, received a 10-minute third-man in game ejection.
“We were really undisciplined at times when we needed to be disciplined,” Boitz said.
Kenai also held Alaska’s top returning veterans scoreless.
“They need to score goals,” Boitz said of his veteran group of forwards.
First-year players Zach Smith and Ryan Kowal scored first-period goals for Alaska.
Kenai blueliner Kegan Kiel flipped a shot from alongside the right boards that got past a screened Maginnis nine minutes into the first period to give the Bears the early score.
Smith used some nifty stick work to fool Hamby and tie the score at 1-1 with six minutes left in the first.
With Alaska skating on the power play, Nardo Nagtzaam sent a quick pass to Smith, who was able to get out in front of Kenai’s pair on defense and create a 1-on-1 situation with Hamby. And thanks to that stick work, Smith scored for the second time in as many games and stretched his point-scoring streak to four games.
A nice series of passing also set up Alaska’s second score. Braun sent a quick pass up the ice to Nagtzaam, who pushed a pass across the front of the goal to Kowal, who put a wrist shot in the upper shelf of the far side of the net to give Alaska the 2-1 lead.
Kenai River did much of its damage in the second period, scoring three times and twice within a 40-second stretch.
Kevin Wentland redirected a Lemke pass at the doorstep of the Alaska net to tie the score at 2-2.
Midway through that period, Wentland and Lemke capitalized on a Kenai 2-on-1 to give the Bears the lead. Wentland fed Lemke with the pass, allowing the Kenai forward to score the first of his two goals on the night. Just 40 seconds later, Kyle Clay was credited with an unorthodox score. Clay put the shot on goal and after Maginnis made the initial stop, the puck just sat in the crease. Before the on-ice officials called play dead, a mass of Kenai and Alaska players crashed the net and during the chaos — before the net was knocked free — the goal slipped into the net.
Kenai River 5, Alaska 4
Friday, Menard Memorial Arena
First period — 1. Kenai River- Kiel (unassisted) 9:07, 2. Alaska- Smith (Nagtzaam, Braun) pp 13:23, 3. Alaska- Kowal (Nagtzaam, McNeely) 18:12.
Second period — 4. Kenai River- Wentland (Lemke) 0:19, 5. Kenai River- Lemke (Wentland) 13:01, 6. Kenai River- Clay (unassisted) 13:41.
Third period — 7. Alaska- Braun (Baldwin, Friese) 2:17, 8. Alaska- Maly (Parenteu, Kowal) 12:15, 9. Kenai River- Lemke (Ammizoato. Berg) pp 17:08.
Shots on goal: Kenai River 9-15-16—40, Alaska 17-14-12—43, Saves: Kenai River- Hamby 15-14-10—39, Alaska- Maginnis 8-12-15—35; Power plays: Kenai River 1-for-10, Alaska 1-for-8; Penalties: Kenai 16-for-50, Alaska 17-for-60.
Kenai River 4, Alaska 2
WASILLA — Kenai River scored a 4-2 win over Alaska on Saturday to notch the two-game sweep of the Avalanche at the Menard Memorial Arena.
Rudi Pino gave the Avs the 1-0 lead just 1:02 into play, but Kenai scored twice in both the first and second periods to take control.
Kenai River 4, Alaska 2
Saturday, Menard Arena
First period —1. Alaska- Pino (Braun) 1:02.
Second period — 2. Kenai River- Clay (McGlasson, Simson) 8:49, 3. Kenai River- Clay (McGlasson, Simson) 14:20.
Second period —4. Kenai River- Simson (Clay, McGlasson) 6:56, 5. Kenai River- Annuziato (Goodmanson, Lemke) pp 10:28.
Third period —6. Alaska- Jones (Pino) 14:05.
Shots on goal: Kenai River 9-10-6—25, Alaska 8-4-9—21; Saves: Kenai River- Hamby 7-4-7—19, Alaska- Tathum- 7-8-6—21; Power plays: Kenai River 1-for-3, Alaska 0-for-5; Penalties: Kenai River 14-for-44, Alaska 11-for-30.
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